Neugart is expanding its range of application-specific gearboxes with a solution specifically for use in Delta robots: the newly developed Neugart NDF. (Source: Neugart GmbH)

The gearbox specialist Neugart is expanding its range of application-specific solutions with a planetary gearbox specifically for Delta robot arm drives. The newly developed NDF will be presented to the public for the first time at the "SPS – smart solutions 2023".

As a follow-up to the NGV, the planetary gearbox for industrial automated guided vehicles, and the hygienic HLAE, Neugart now presents the new NDF, another gearbox solution for a special field of application: It was developed specifically for use in Delta robots.

As parallel-arm robots with tripod kinematics, Delta robots offer very high dynamics and for this reason are used primarily for pick & place tasks, e.g. in automated packaging lines. They combine very fast movements with high positioning accuracy. This results in specific requirements for the servo motors of the main drives - and for the corresponding gearboxes. As a result, these gearboxes must meet the highest demands, especially in terms of inertia and stiffness, in order to ensure the necessary precision even at full speed.

Design details fulfill specific requirements
The Neugart NDF gearbox meets these special requirements with numerous technical details: For example, the gearbox enables extremely fast changes of direction thanks to a low-inertia clamping system at the input stage, which improves the dynamics and thus the cycle time of the robot. At the same time, the torsional backlash is limited to